Old English Cottage. 



351 



OLD ENGLISH COTTAGE. 



URAL cottages in England are 

 very different from what are 

 termed rural cottages in 

 America. An English village 

 is clothed with verdure of 

 the most enlivening descrip- 

 tion. There, houses are fairly 

 enshrouded to the very roof 

 with graceful climbers. Ev- 

 ery salient point is embraced 

 with ivy, which frequently 

 depends in elegant festoons. 

 Trees and hedges luxuriate 

 everywhere, and the remem- 

 brance of the cottage home 

 with the Englishman is a 

 grateful and refreshing rem- 

 iniscence through all his pil- 

 grimage of life. Americans, 

 we are sorry to say, have a 

 more powerful appreciation 

 for that which produces the 

 dollar than that which elevates the mind and cultivates home affec- 

 tions. We ardently long after twenty-one, and the opportunity to 

 dash at the busy scenes of life, to compete with others in a struggle 

 for lucre. We build our homes with a view to economize money, 

 space, and at the same time not lose sight of convenience, for we are 

 too utilitarian to omit bo important an object. Sometimes we 

 go farther than this, and are stimulated to add a little of what is 

 termed ornament. Instead of doing this with trees and flowers, 

 we substitute paint, (bright paint), a little extra carpentry work, 

 and then desist, in the consoling reflection that we have achieved 

 a prodigy of a house. We are a great restless wave on the sea 

 of life, constantly undulating and foaming, doing that for the 

 good of the nation which were wiser expended in one's family — 

 diving into politics (for we arc born statesmen, every one of us) 

 —forgetting in our ambition that a cheerful home with our own 



